Huber v. Nelson Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 148 U.S. 270
• 13 S. Ct. 603
• 37 L. Ed. 447
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2231

Syllabus

<p>Letters patent No. 26QJ2S2, granted June 27, 1882, to Henry Huber, as assignee of Stewart Peters and William Donald, of Glasgow, Scotland, for an “ improvement in'watewelosets,” the patent expressing on its face that it was “ subject to the limitation prescribed by § 4887, Rev. Stat., by reason of English patent dated April 7, 1874, No. 1207,” are void because the English patent had expired April 7, 1881.</p> <p>Reissued letters patent No. 10,826, granted to James E. Boyle, April 19, 1887, for an improvement in flushing apparatus for water-closets, on the reissue of original patent No. 291,139, granted to Boyle January 1, 1884, the application for the reissue having been filed January 2, 1885, are void, as to claims 1 and 2 of the reissue.</p> <p>Every claim of'the original patent contained, as an element, a flushing chamber, and no claim of the reissue which leaves out a-flushing chamber can be construed as valid.</p> <p>There is new matter in the reissue specification inserted to lay a foundation for the expanded claims in the reissue.</p> <p>There is nothing in the original patent which suggests the possibility that Boyle’s invention could be operated by a combination which' omitted the-flushing chamber as an element thereof.</p>